1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a network apparatus capable of easily setting IPsec (security architecture for Internet Protocol), an IPsec setting method therein, and a computer-readable recording medium storing a control program for executing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Maintaining security in network apparatuses which are connected to a network has been required under a high quest of security. The network apparatus is, for example, a printer, a scanner, a facsimile, or an MFP (multifunctional peripheral) having the above functions.
In IPsec, data are encrypted in the IP layer. That is, different from SSL (secure socket protocol) which has been frequently used in WWW data encryption, IPsec does not need to adjust a program of an application layer so as to maintain security.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-184594
As described above, IPsec has an advantage; however, in IPsec, a user must set many items and this presents complexity to the user. In addition, communications can be executed between network apparatuses having the same settings in their IPset. When one of the network apparatuses has a setting made in error, the communications cannot be executed therebetween.
In Patent Document 1, an address generating method is disclosed so as to easily manage data in a large scale network. However, IPset is not described.